967

Is it possible to have a decent public school in a country in which teachers unions, in partnership with the Democratic Party, hold our children hostage?

AIPCS believes in setting a high standard for ALL students regardless of race, ethnicity, language, economic standing, etc.
Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.

In California, a small cluster of Charter Schools that flips the bird at the Liberal Bad Education Alliance operates at the top of the class.

Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website.

There's an interesting trend going on in America. Some liberals who actually believe in education seem willing to buck the party and try to turn the schools around before they suffer the same fate as General Motors and Chrysler.

Students, almost all poor, wear uniforms and are subject to disciplinary procedures redolent of military school. One local school district official was horrified to learn that a girl was forced to clean the boys' restroom as punishment.

The Harlem Children's Zone, Kipp Academy and many others have proven that good education is quite doable for poor and minority students if only you can get the Democratic Cabal out of the way - Charter Schools provide the opening.

It would be easy to dismiss American Indian as one of the nuttier offshoots of the fast-growing charter school movement, which allows schools to receive public funding but operate outside of day-to-day district oversight. But the schools command attention for one very simple reason: By standard measures, they are among the very best in California.

According to the Academic Performance Index used by California to rate its schools, a score of 650 is normal for inner city schools. On the scale of 0 to 1000, AIP schools do much better.

The oldest of the American Indian schools, the middle school known simply as American Indian Public Charter School, has an API of 967. Its two siblings -- American Indian Public Charter School II (also a middle school) and American Indian Public High School -- are not far behind.

Why aren't public schools across the country eagerly seeking to reproduce the techniques that are making so many Charters the best schools in the country?

"They really should be the model for public education in the state of California," said Debra England of the Koret Foundation, a Bay Area group that has given more than $100,000 in grants to American Indian. "What I will never understand is why the world is not beating a path to their door to benchmark them, learn from them and replicate what they are doing."

The answer is simple. Schools are controlled by Democrats, and Democrats are controlled by unions. Both put money and power ahead of "the children."